Are record shops still important?

Well you wouldn't expect the answer no from me would you?! As someone who owns an independent record shop in Leeds city centre we rely on people buying physical product. And I have to say that I'm pretty positive at the moment. The huge resurgence in vinyl sales during the last few years has had a very significant impact on our ability to continue trading. The shop is now in its 28th year and half of those have been under my ownership.

Prior to buying Crash I worked as a sales rep for CBS/Sony Music calling on record shops throughout the north of England. I did 12 years on the road and loved just about every minute. Future blogs may well contain some of the stories from those days! Before my days working for a record company I had 8 years in record retail. The first four at Virgin Records, followed by a stretch of similar length at HMV.

Virgin has of course disappeared off the map, but the big worry now is that HMV may also vanish from the high street. You may think this would be a cause for celebration for an independent record retailer but it isn't. As other people have already said, HMV closing would negatively impact on the whole record industry and would probably mean fewer releases and labels going out of business. There simply aren't enough independent record shops to pick up those lost sales. (And yes, I do realise that Top Dog probably contributed to lots of independent record shops closing during the last few decades).

The perception that a piece of music has value would soon disappear if we lived in a world where downloads were the only option. Thankfully though lots of people still want to own something tangible by their favourite band or artist. We love to collect stuff, it's in the nation's DNA and there aren't many things better than a record collection (in alphabetical order of course!) so it's vital that we continue to see record shops in cities and towns across the country. There is still plenty of demand out there for CDs and LPs.

Once the HMV situation is sorted out I think the record industry should look at ways to try and ensure that shops continue to trade around the country. Encouraging people to visit bricks and mortar retailers rather than heading straight to Amazon would be good. We pay all our taxes so it's difficult to match them on price without a little help from the record companies.

Something that should definitely be looked at though is the day of the week that albums and singles are released. It has been Monday for many years now, and in the past the only option was to head to the shop on that day to pick up your new release. It used to be a very busy and exciting day for retailers. Now, because there are so many options for people that buzz has disappeared, So why not have Saturday as new release day? It's the busiest day of the week when lots of people are not at work. It could potentially bring the excitement back to new release day. And if that means that the chart is moved to Friday instead of Sunday then why not? There's nothing wrong with shaking things up now and again.

Anyway, that's enough from me for now. Thanks for reading the very first Crash Records blog.